This invention relates generally to animal carrier systems, and more particularly, to a filter bag for enclosing a laboratory animal in a carrier during transportation, the filter bag being sealable so as to prevent any bypass of the filter medium.
Specially produced laboratory animals, particularly animals which are marketed to be used in laboratory research, are transported throughout the world. However, it is a significant problem in this industry that, particularly during transportation, the laboratory animals will be subjected to environments which may contain contaminants. Clearly, such contaminated laboratory animals may cause erroneous experimental results during the research, and may also contaminate other laboratory animals. It is therefore essential that laboratory animals be transported in clean environments, and the air which such animals breath must be filtered to exclude the contaminants.
In addition to the foregoing, it is important for a recipient of such a laboratory animal to know whether, during transportation, the animal has been exposed to the environment outside of the transportation container. As is well known, such exposure of the laboratory animal to unknown contaminants will render the animal useless for certain controlled research projects and experiments, particularly where the entire history of the animal must be known.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a simple and economical system for transporting laboratory animals.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a reliable filter bag system for ensuring that the animal transported therein is not contaminated by direct exposure to the environment, while permitting a sufficient flow of filtered air through the filter bag system to prevent suffocation of the animal.
It is another object of this invention to provide a simple and economical system for sealing the filter bag, whereby any opening of the filter bag which would expose the laboratory animal therein to the environment can easily be detected.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a filter bag system which can be sealed easily and rapidly without requiring adhesives which might cause contamination of the laboratory animal.